Ethereum’s Ether Shows Weekend Strength

Ethereum’s ether (ETH) demonstrated resilience over the weekend, igniting investor optimism for improved price performance, yet indicating a broader market decline.

In a quiet trading day due to the U.S. holiday, ether climbed as much as 7%, reaching a session high of $2,850, surpassing the overall crypto market. However, it soon lost most of its gains, falling back to $2,730 as the wider market declined, with bitcoin (BTC) dropping from approximately $97,000 to $95,500. Despite this, ETH maintained a 2% increase over the preceding 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 Index and BTC both decreased by about 2%.

ETH’s strength contrasted with a downward trend among most CD20 members (CoinDesk Indices).

Traders recalled past instances, such as late January and early February, when fleeting ETH rallies presaged a downturn in crypto values. For instance, ETH’s 10% surge to $3,400 within three days preceded a sharp decline tied to trade war fears, causing BTC to plummet by 13% and ETH by 35%, nearly dropping to $2,000 during a low-volume weekend.

> Eth pumps for 5% –>
> Entire market in next hour
>

Ether’s upturn occurred amid issues surrounding memecoins like Argentina’s LIBRA on Solana and BNB Chain’s BROCCOLI, which was inspired by the former Binance CEO CZ’s dog name revelation, adversely impacting rival layer-1 networks.

“ETH’s recent price actions appear more as a catch-up to where it ought to be rather than true outperformance,” remarked Aran Hawker, CEO of trading automation platform CoinPanel, in a Telegram discussion with CoinDesk. “Some traders might have shifted back into ETH from SOL, but there’s no distinct trend change. Any perceived advantage could vanish with the next significant market shift.”

Conversely, Joel Kruger, a market strategist at LMAX Group, expressed a more hopeful perspective, suggesting that the recent price movements might indicate ETH is poised to conclude its prolonged decline against bitcoin.

“There is a potential for ETH to form a significant bottom against bitcoin after its downtrend since 2021,” stated Kruger in Monday’s market note. “Monitoring the current monthly high in the ETH/BTC ratio will be crucial; a breakout could support reversal prospects.”

Interest among crypto traders for ETH surged relative to BTC on Monday, as indicated by CoinGlass data. Open interest for ETH futures increased by 12% to 9.27 million contracts (almost $2.6 billion) across all exchanges within the past 24 hours, predominantly driven by offshore platforms Binance and Gate.io, while BTC futures’ open interest only grew by 1%.